Cara Mia Quartet
by Xelac
Summary: This is a songfic using Johanna Quartet from Broadway's Sweeney Todd. GLaDOS finds herself unable to stop thinking about her former test subject, loses hope that she will ever see Chell again, and instead focuses on her new human test subjects from the vault.


**A/N: This is a songfic utilising the song Johanna Quartet from the Broadway version of Sweeney Todd. Make sure you look up the Broadway version!**

Time had not been kind to the little core. Floating in space with nothing to think about except his overwhelming guilt, Wheatley quickly became corrupted. This was worsened by his visual memories superimposing themselves over his current visual feed.

"I'll save you, my lady, I'll save you," he promised as he thought he saw the human he had betrayed before him, standing in her extended relaxation chamber as she was when he first met her, "Does she think that space can hide you? Even now, I'm in your doorway," she looked up at him as he came closer. He was close enough to touch her now if he leaned forward in his rail, "I am in the dark beside you, buried sweetly in your raven hair..." Just as he moved to brush against her, she faded as his visuals corrected themselves and he was left with reality - the Earth spinning below him; the girl impossibly out of reach. "My lady..."

The test chamber door opened and a test subject cautiously walked through it. Though she watched it and recorded its progress, GLaDOS' mind was on a different test subject.

"Are you still beautiful and pale, with raven hair, like _her_?" she pondered, "I'd want you beautiful and pale, as I recall you were, Cara Mia..."

She watched the subject unenthusiastically complete the test chamber, clearly not appreciating the science it was helping to solve. At least _she_ didn't complain. "And if you're beautiful, what then? With raven hair, like night?" GLaDOS turned away from the monitor and toward the elevator on the other side of her chamber as she decided, "I think we shall not meet again, my lunatic, my light, Cara Mia..."

She turned back to the monitor as the test subject darted foolishly in front of a pair of turrets. Bullets ripped through its body. "Goodbye, Cara Mia," she said to herself, "You're gone, and yet you're mine! I'm _fine_, Cara Mia, I'm fine!" The panels beneath the dead subject flipped and sent it down a chute towards the incinerator.

The incinerator's ventilation system had yet to be repaired, causing it to belch smoke into the facility. A man in a tattered and dirty lab coat ran out of his now smoke-filled den, coughing and sputtering.

"Smoke, smoke," he wheezed, "Sign of the devil! Sign of the devil! All is on fire!" He rambled on, clutching a worn companion cube close to his chest, "Witch! Witch! Smell it, Cube! An evil smell! Every night at the testhing knell! Smoke that comes from the Android's Hell! All is on fire! All is on fire!" Almost weeping now, he muttered under his breath as he carried his cube off to find a new safe spot, "Testing... testing... testing..."

GLaDOS watched the man scurry around her facility, but wasn't concerned about him. She returned to testing, watching a new subject be released into a test chamber, but still thought about her.

"And if I never hear your voice, my so-called mute, my dear," she thought to herself, "I still have reason to rejoice; the way ahead is clear, Cara Mia!"

Chell jerked awake from another nightmare about testing. "These nightmares have to end someday," she promised herself, still refusing to seek help, "Have to end someday..."

"And in that darkness when I find that I am all alone," GLaDOS mused, her focus returning to testing, "I simply force you from my mind, knowing you won't come home, Cara Mia..."

Chell had decided to take a walk to clear her head, unintentionally moving toward the wheat field. "I will get over this someday, over this someday..."

GLaDOS spotted her in the distance through her surface-level cameras and swiftly crushed whatever hope she had of the girl visiting. This wasn't the first time she had done this. "You _stay_, Cara Mia," sh said as if to shoo her away though she knew the human couldn't hear her, "Don't let me catch you here!" Her current test subject managed to get itself slices in two by lasars. "Oh, look, Cara Mia, a deer! A little deer!" As if on cue, the human turned away, while in Aperture, another subject's body was sent to the incinerator.

The Rat Man was once again coughing from smoke smelling of burned flesh. "There! There! Somebody, somebody, look up there!" he begged, frantically looking at the ghostly images of his coworkers and wondering why they weren't reacting, "Didn't I tell you?! Smell that air! All is on fire!" He gave his companion cube a shove, asking "Quick, Cube! Run and tell! Warm 'em all of the witch's spell! There it is, there it is, the unholy smell! Tell it to Caroline, Mr. Johnson as well! Tell 'em! Tell 'em! Help! Fiend! All is on fire! All is on fire!" He collapsed around his cube, grasping it desperately and sobbing as he muttered, "Science... testing... science... Fiend! Cube, Cube..."

A new test subject began testing. "And though I'll think of you, I guess, until the day you die," GLaDOS thought, "I think I miss you less and less, as every day goes by, Cara Mia..."

"Maybe I'll visit her someday, talk to her someday" Chell considered before dismissing the idea as stupid and dangerous.

"And you'd be beautiful and pale, and look too much like _her_," an image of Caroline briefly flickered on the monitor as as GLaDOS watched the current test subject, "If only science could prevail, we'd be the way we were, Cara Mia!"

Chell had reached a decision, though she doubted it was a good one. "I'll go confront her on Sunday... confront her on Sunday..."

The test subject didn't use enough propulsion gel. It slid to a halt before it got past the crushers. "Wake up, Cara Mia!" GLaDOS thought as the crusher came down on the subject, "Another bright red day!" The crusher lifted back up, dripping with blood. "We learn, Cara Mia, to say..." the panels flipped and sent the mutilated subject to the incinerator, "Goodbye..."

"I'll save you..." Wheatley continued to promise, though only the moon could hear him.

**A/N: Writing this on a tablet was a mistake. The autocorrect is much worse. Also, if you listen to the song, you noticed that Anthony, the character whose lines were given to Wheatley, often sang in the background. However, I figured it would break the flow of the story if it constantly jumped to Wheatley in space saying "My laaaadyyyy!" and then back to GLaDOS killing test subjects.**


End file.
